How to Save on Road Trip Food

Road trips can be a great way to save money as you travel with your family, BUT if you aren’t careful they can end up costing more than you intended for them to. There are lots of ways to save money on a road trip, but today we’re going to focus on how to save on road trip food.

We’ve partnered with handymat to bring you these fun ideas today!

The biggest way to save money on food is to plan ahead. Think through how many snacks each person might need in the car, and then bring a few more! There’s nothing like travel to make every man woman and child feel like they need to eat more than they normally would.

My personal theory is that this is because there’s nothing to distract you from  your hunger in the car. You notice it right away and you need some good road trip snacks to hold you over until it’s time for your meals.

When it comes to meal time though, resist the urge to stop at restaurants to eat! It’s amazing how quickly those restaurant bills can add up. Between $2 soft drinks, portion sizes that are too big and go to waste and a tip you’ll walk out of the restaurant spending way more than your thrifty road trip budget intended.

Instead, add some extra fun and take the more budget conscious choice to do road trip picnics! I still remember a multi-state road trip we went on with my aunt when I was a kid. We packed picnic lunches for everyday and it was a huge highlight of the trip.

We used small toy storage bins to pack each day’s lunch food in so it would keep. We packed things like tunafish in pouches or pop-top cans with crackers and a small container of unopened mayonaise and other non-perishable lunch ideas.

You can usually find a national park to stop in along the way or even a visitor area/guest stop at state borders. To keep things clean, we recommend using Handymat Picnic Table Mat as well.

It easily folds up so it’s perfect to toss in your car so you can eat over a clean space as you travel. Since it’s not for cutting food on or hot dishes, it really makes it a great fit for picnics while traveling since you won’t be using hot food and will probably have done all your chopping ahead of time anyway.

AND for Traveling Family Blog readers, we have an exclusive discount code so you can buy your mat for $3 off, just use the code: 7Q3XK8KP at checkout! The brand even agreed to donate $1 to cancer research for every purchase from our site through May 31st!

We’ve found picnicing and packing your own food can be the BEST way to save on road trips meals and snacks. It also makes for great memories! I was 10 when I took that trip with our family but I still remember our little picnic stops fondly, and I’m excited to make similar memories with my own kids.

Have you ever done a road trip picnic? How do you save on meals while you travel?